Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards claimed to have “hunted down” an American drone over Iranian airspace, but there may be a lot of internal politics involved in the all-out propaganda fest launched on state media to declare Tehran’s military prowess in the Persian Gulf.

Iranian officials used the alleged intrusion to highlight what they called America’s spying activity against Iran, effectively turning the media conversation into a celebration of the Guards’ strength and focusing public attention away from a host of thorny subjects the regime has struggled with recently. Between the collapse of its currency, a sharp warning from the United States against Tehran’s ally Syria, open rifts between factions of its own regime, and the embarrassing death of a blogger under torture, Iran has faced unusually intense pressure in just the past month.